Similar Species Superficially identical to the brown-crested, which averages darker gray and brighter yellow below, is larger in all aspects, lacks typical ash-throated tail pattern, and has different voice. Juvenile ash-throated tail suggests the great crested, but size, shape, and plumage should make identification easy. Nutting’s best separated by voice, mouth color.

Voice Call: ka-brick, soft prrrrt (nonbreeders less vocal). Dawn song: a repeated series of ha-wheer and other notes.

Status and Distribution Common. Breeding: desert scrub and riparian, oak, or coniferous woodland. Migration: in spring, mid-March–mid-May. In fall, August–mid-September; stragglers October–November. Winter: extreme southwestern United States to Honduras. Vagrant: rare/casual north to southwestern British Columbia, east to southeastern Canada and to Atlantic and Gulf coasts in the United States, mainly in fall and winter.